TLC’s Chilli Dresses Like A Thundercat For PETA [PHOTO]

Atlanta R&B group TLC has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity lately thanks to a biopic, CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story, on VH1. Perhaps to capitalize off that bump in popularity, PETA teams with Chilli for a new ad campaign to “Boycott The Circus,” which finds the singer naked except for tiger body paint.

Says PETA’s press release:

Crouched inside a cage and wearing nothing but striped bodypaint, Chilli of the multiplatinum trio TLC is the star of a provocative new ad campaign for PETA that demands, “Boycott the Circus.” The ad, which be can reviewed here, reveals that tigers used by circuses are beaten into submission—and when they’re not “performing,” they’re locked away in cramped, filthy cages.

“There’s so much cruelty behind the scenes, which is a something that a lot of people don’t get to see,” Chilli explained in an exclusive PETA interview. “They’re being mean to them to make them do this trick .… And I think that everybody needs to be aware of what’s really going on.”

That’s why Chilli was willing to strip down for the cause. “If you can raise awareness to something that’s important, such as this, then you should,” she says. “Because I know for a fact that I would never want to be in a cage.”

Circuses deprive tigers of everything that is natural and important to them, including interacting with their families, foraging and hunting for food, and roaming for miles. Tigers used by circuses are locked in small cages and warehoused in traveling boxcars, where they are exposed to extreme heat and freezing-cold weather. These unnatural and stressful conditions lead tigers and other big cats to become ill, despondent, and increasingly agitated, endangering other animals, circus workers, and attendees.

And this is where we point out that Chilli looks like a suspect version of Cheetara of the Thundercats. Hey, look at the full size ad for yourself in the flip and tell us we’re wrong?

Yes, we know Cheetara was based on a cheetah, but calling her Tigra would be too slanderous…